Castro's biography is funny and moving, zealously researched and lovingly told. This excellent new translation by Andrew Downie means English readers can properly appreciate one of the most incredible lives in the history of sport

Passionate, fascinating and surprisingly moving... a worthy tribute... According to Gazza, Gascoigne has limited interest in books. He should be persuaded to make an exception for Garrincha. He would learn more about himself than by reading his own autobiography

[A] powerfully atmospheric and beautifully rendered life of one of Brazil's greatest ever players... A sad and fantastic book

[Castro's] research is exhaustive and exemplary

A compelling page-turner, warts and all

Full of incident, detail and gossip

Astounding

Hugely enjoyable, poignant book... Dave Roberts' wonderful series of tales explain why every one of the programmes made it into the box; each is infused with a mixture of touching reminiscence or laugh-out-loud anecdote

Deliriously enjoyable... utterly engaging

Nostalgically warm in its tender recall of the way things used to be, this is a book for the true football follower, whose life has been shaped by the game and doesn't mind admitting it

Wonderful, hilarious and moving. 32 Programmes is not just a football memoir but a delicious slice of the 1960s and 1970s, a razor-sharp and achingly evocative social history. This brilliant memoir will resonate with all of us who have ever supported a football team, listened to music and fallen in love.

I loved this book. If you know a man in his forties or fifties, please give him this book

A funny, charming and heart-warming tale of obsession

I fail to believe that anyone who reads Dave Roberts' new book 32 Programmes cannot relate to his thinking as a football fan. It traces his life as a football fan through 32 chapters in his life, going into the bitter-sweet details of growing up in the 1970s and '80s via 32 football matches. Building on and around his first book, The Bromley Boys (soon to be released as a film, no less), Dave introduces us to his career, his attempts to find a soul mate and finally in a twist his life changing circumstances that will have you reaching for a tissue. If you read one new book on your holidays this summer, choose this one. And then you try and detail 10, let alone 32, games that mark the milestones in your life

Entertaining, heart-warming and expertly executed, this book is certain to strike a chord with anyone who's ever loved the game. Engrossing and enjoyable... funny and charming

An entertaining read, rich in nostalgia and reminiscent of Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch, this offers an insight into the power of obsession and how the beautiful game has changed. Moving and amusing

Paul Hendrickson has another theme more interesting than Hemmingway's boat: the writers deadly effect on his sons

This is a measured and thoughtful, sometimes lyrical book that adds considerably to the Papa story

Hendrickson has a tremendous feel for Hemingway, as both writer and man; his own writing is vivid and personal... What he says about Hemingway is usually dead on target

Hemingway's Boat... turns a seemingly trivial search for an old boat up on cinder blocks in a Havana yard and a potentially mawkish concentration on the latter end of a life into a powerful meditation on what made Hemingway tick and what made him great. Though one needs other books for the first 35 years of the life, it supersedes them all.

Hendrickson has a fluent, engaging tone...he brings us closer to understanding Hemingway as a man who loved and lost - as opposed to the archtypal misogynist bully he is widely regarded as

His life was spectacular, and, somehow, went spectacularly wrong. Hendrickson tells the story of the man and the boat, and the fish, and the women, and the writing. And then the moment when, at the age of 61, Hemingway woke up early one morning and shot himself. In the head. On purpose. Some story. Very well told

Rich, magisterial account...Other books on Hemingway have tended to focus on his post-1930s literary decline and his machismo. The portrait that emerges from these pages is altogether more human

He has a tremendous feel for Hemingway, as both writer and man

This is a portrait of the author which is likely to leave one feeling more warmly disposed towards him

More a portrait than a biography, this book is a dazzling late example of "New Journalism"...the result is touching, revelatory and utterly absorbing

Unmissable

While much of Hemingway’s life may have been hellish, Hendrickson’s writing is a delight. A fine work

Very well told

An album of fascinating snapshots of Hemingway

Paul Hendrickson writes with a great deal of passion…

A terrific and fresh approach to the man